3 U.S. Events to Watch at U.N. Climate Talks in Lima

The 2014 U.N. climate conference has kicked off in Lima, Peru, and negotiators are working hard to reach agreement on global climate targets. But this world gathering is also a chance for governments, non-government organizations and companies to showcase innovative work they are doing to address climate change.

Here are three key events to watch at the U.S. Center, run by the State Department, to show off some of the ground-breaking work U.S. government agencies are doing on climate change. All three will be streamed live at: YouTube.com/TheUSCenter

Crops like cacao can help forest-dependent people earn more using less land, improving livelihoods and conserving forests. / Hanz Rippe

REDD+ is a policy approach to compensate forest countries and communities for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The idea is, governments and communities should be rewarded for preserving forests. Cutting down forests currently causes more than 10 percent of all heat-trapping emissions.

The question is, how do we come up with the money or incentives to reward forest communities for conservation, so that the whole world can reap the health and ecosystem benefits they provide?

The best source of financing is the private sector – and quite a few REDD+ projects today are showing how it can work.

Anyone who loves forests – and especially the Amazon – should tune in Thursday at 5:30 to hear Peru’s Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal and Indonesia’s REDD+ lead Heru Prasetyo, talk with three large Amazon REDD+ programs – and one very innovative investment fund – about how they are changing the economics of forest conservation. The fund, Althelia, has more than $130 million to invest in the carbon benefits and other benefits of forest conservation and sustainable land use projects all over the world.

Climate science and decision making tools such as SERVIR provide data on climate indicators such as storms, precipitation, floods, and temperatures. / SERVIR.net

Imagine it’s your job to sift through reams of data about how climate change is affecting your country or city. What information is essential, and how do you apply it to protect your coastlines, infrastructure and, above all, your people? Or, imagine you are a poor farmer deciding whether to spend last year’s small profit to plant 10 percent more this year – or use it to buy insurance so your family won’t go hungry if this year brings drought. Where do you go to find a science-based forecast for your area with clear guidance specific to the current season?

On Friday, Red Cross/Red Crescent hosts an interactive game at the U.S. Center, where audience members take the role of poor farmers and harried government officials trying to make critical decisions with limited information. All sorts of weather and climate information is out there, but how do you get hold of the specific data you need in a useable format, whether you are planting rice or building seawalls?

For game participants, it can be shocking how quickly these become life-or-death decisions. Fortunately, speakers from Red Cross and USAID are there to provide comfort after the game by discussing new climate-smart tools and approaches that can help farmers, governments and development practitioners make climate-savvy smarter decisions.

Climate change induced degradation of land could be the inheritance of inaction regarding climate change. / George Safonov

President Obama announced a set of new initiatives in September to strengthen global resilience to climate change – including a new Public-Private Partnership on Climate Data for Resilient Development. The idea is that USAID, with NOAA, NASA, USGS and other agencies, will harness, create and share climate data, information, tools, which developing countries need to build climate resilience and curb greenhouse gas emissions.

The partnership will make existing climate data, science, outlooks, tools, and services easier to access and better tailored for making decisions. It will also link climate data with development efforts, identify gaps and develop new products to support decision-making in climate-vulnerable areas. Just two weeks ago, USAID sent out a public request for information seeking input.

For anyone working with USAID, this emerging initiative could have implications. Thursday’s event will shed light, as White House science lead John Holdren beams in via Skype to chat about what’s coming with Kelly Gallagher, White House Office of Science and Technology, and Kit Batten, USAID’s global climate change lead.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrea Welsh is USAID’s communications lead at the U.S. Center for U.N. climate talks . Follow @USAIDenviro and @US_Center